Nightlife
A Novel
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4.3 • 119 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A detective’s murder investigation takes a perilous turn when she becomes the elusive serial killer’s next target in this “bone-chilling [and] transfixing crime story” (The New York Times) from the award-winning author of The Butcher’s Boy.
“A fast-paced thriller . . . tightly plotted, with a lot of action and plenty of twists.”—The Denver Post
When the cousin of Los Angeles underworld figure Hugo Poole is found shot to death in his home in Portland, Oregon, homicide detective Catherine Hobbes is determined to solve the case. But her feelings, and the investigation, are complicated when Hugo simultaneously hires private detective Joe Pitt. As Joe and Catherine form an uneasy alliance, the murder count rises. Following the evidence, Catherine finds herself in a deadly contest with a cunning female adversary capable of changing her appearance and identity at will. Catherine must use everything she knows, as a detective and as a woman, to stop a murderer who kills on impulse and with ease, and who becomes more efficient and elusive with each crime.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Serial killer Charlene Buckner aka Tanya Starling, Rachel Sturbridge, Nancy Mills, and several other monikers changes her identity each time she commits a murder. By the end of Perry's mesmerizing novel (Pursuit; The Butcher's Boy), Charlene has racked up an impressive body count and her own personal Rolodex of bogus names. Yes, as a child she had a slutty mom, and yes, she was abandoned in her late teens, but her life story is hardly the horror show of most fictional serial killers. Perry patiently shows that it doesn't necessarily take child molestation and brutality to create a murderer. "She was just a regular person who had always wanted what everybody else wanted to be happy." Portland police detective Sgt. Catherine Hobbes investigates Charlene's first kill, Dennis Poole, and follows close behind her, always just a little too late to catch Charlene or save her latest victim, as Charlene moves on to San Francisco, L.A., Las Vegas and other locales, where she pauses just long enough to commit another murder. Hobbes has her own issues, and by the end the two women have grown close not only in proximity but in identity as well. Reinterpreting conventions and confounding readers' expectations with fascinating characters, this is Perry at his best.
Customer Reviews
Another great Thomas Perry book
 I really love the characters in the story and the intricacy of the plot. Having lived both in Portland and in Flagstaff I enjoyed the Settings but it was obviously that Perry has never been to Flagstaff because he talked about desert plants and Flagstaff of course is over 7000 ft. Above sea level and it’s in the middle of the Ponderosa Pineforest. Lol
We actually get 50 inches of snow each year there and it’s never hot. You have to go down the mountain mountains to Phoenix to get desert.